In this issue of the Amazon FBA deep-dive, we are analyzing Optimal Carnivore, a FBA brand focusing on organ supplements.
There are a lot of things to like about this brand but there are multiple easy wins that are being overlooked.
The estimated monthly revenue for this brand is $109,312/month. We anticipate it can be increased by 20-25% through the easy wins below.
This is what we cover in this deep dive:
- Business Summary
- Highlights
- Setbacks
- 4 Easy Wins to increase revenue
- What is the exit valuation of this brand?
- Actionable takeaways
Let’s get into it!
Optimal Carnivore Brand Overview
The first listing for Optimal Carnivore went live on Amazon in September 2019 and they have quickly developed a strong position in the competitive organ supplements category. Today they sell 4 different types of supplements including beef organs, beef liver, lions mane, and bone marrow.
The brand is doing $109,312 in revenue on Amazon across their entire product catalog. The top listing accounts for nearly 40% of their revenue but the other 3 products also sell consistently.
✅ Highlights
- Diversified revenue across product portfolio (top product only accounts for 40% of revenue)
- High average price point (~$50) provides plenty of margin for advertising
- Lightweight and easy to ship products
❌ Setbacks
- Highly competitive supplement category features extremely high CPCs and a prevalence of black-hat tactics from competitors
- Low number of products may make expanding revenue difficult
4 Easy Ways to Grow Optimal Carnivore by 20%
There are opportunities to significantly grow and differentiate this brand. We break down the following wins:
- Cross sell other products using free and paid methods
- Add call outs to the main image to increase click through rate
- Incorporate more long tail keywords into the PPC Strategy
- Improve Sponsored Brand Videos using Facebook ad best practices
Let’s get into it!
➡️ Win #1: Cross sell other products using ads, A+ content, and virtual bundles
Optimal Carnivore’s grassfed beef organ supplement has the largest review count and it currently drives 40% of their overall revenue.
In the highly competitive supplement category, a strong listing shoudl be used to help sell other products in your catalog. There are multiple ways to go apart this.
For free methods of promotion, you can:
- Add a listing image advertising the rest of your catalog. Bonus points if you include a discount code on the listing image to incentivize action. Below shows an example (from a Thrasio-owned brand)
- Use virtual bundles. Pair your best-selling listing with other weaker selling supplements at a discount to increase average order value
- Use A+ content. In particular, the table comparison module allows you to hyperlink to your other listings on Amazon.
There are also paid ways to increase cross-selling. Caution though – there’s a reason I first talked about free methods of promotion.
The supplements category features the highest CPCs out of any category on Amazon.
For any paid advertising you do – make sure that it is generating incremental revenue and not just cannibalizing organic revenue (we’ll have a post out soon on how to identify this problem).
To increase cross-selling using paid methods, you can:
- Use Sponsored Product ads with a Product Page modifier to show up on your own listings.
As you scroll down, these ads appear on your listing under the Sponsored Results section.
- Use Sponsored Display ads to advertise their other products on their hero listing
Sponsored Display ads also appear on your own listing. In comparison to Sponsored Products though, you can include a headline and image with this ads in order to increase CTR.
➡️ Win #2: Experiment with changing the main image to increase CTR
The supplement category on Amazon is where I go to see the latest trends in main image and listing optimization. Sellers in this category tend to be the fastest to update listings due to how competitive it is.
While Optimal Carnivore is using a strong 3D rendering of their product for their main image, there is more they could be doing to stand out in search results.
In particular, I would test 2 things
- A call-out label “attached” to the label displaying core information about the product
- Natural elements attached to the bottom of the bottle to distinguish from similar looking supplement bottles
In recent months, more and more sellers have started including labels on their product in order to distinguish themselves further from competition. It’s important to note that these labels are NOT included on the actual product – they’re likely just made in Photoshop.
Below shows the current Optimal Carnivore main image along with 2 annotated examples of what I mean.
I would also experiment with including natural elements around the bottle in order to further distinguish the product in search results. The Mother Nutrient (middle image above) shows an ok example. Below are two other examples.
➡️ Win #3: Incorporate more long-tail keywords in the Amazon advertising strategy
As discussed previously, advertising in the supplement category features intense competition and high CPCs. I have run advertising for multiple clients in this category and the average CPC can be anywhere from $3 – $5/click.
Below shows that Optimal Carnivore is currently advertising on nearly 600 keywords to drive traffic to their listing.
When CPCs are high, a good strategy for PPC can be to incorporate more long tail keywords. Long tail keywords typically have higher conversion rates making them easier to target.
If we look at a mix of the top competitors, we can see they’re advertising on over 1,200 keywords (2x what Optimal Carnivore is advertising on).
I would cross-compare these lists and identify targeted keywords that may be relevant to Optimal Carnivore that they are missing with their current advertising strategy.
Keywords such as the below may make sense to target
- dessicated liver supplement
- ancestral supplements beef liver
- heart supplements
Note: Ancestral Supplements is a brand name and as such, bidding on this term may be highly competitive. You still may want to target it but be cautious.
➡️ Win #4: Test different Sponsored Brand Videos in order to increase click through and conversion rate
The current Sponsored Brand video for Optimal Carnivore leaves a lot to be desired. It is primarily stock video footage with basic text overlaid on top.
It’s important to think about Sponsored Brand Video ads as similar to Facebook or TikTok ads. Customers are browsing on Amazon and looking for anything that catches their eye.
Will generic video footage and some basic text catch your eye? No.
To improve the video, they should test
- Quick scene changes in the first 3-5 seconds – this will help draw the reader in
- Display an animated version of the supplement and list the key benefits in the video
- Test an unboxing video with a customer (UGC) with text subtitles
How Much is Optimal Carnivore Worth?
Optimal Carnivore has a strong position in a competitive category. The category as a whole is also poised for future growth as the carnivore and paleo diets continue to gain in popularity.
Optimal Carnivore is estimated to be doing $109,312/month which equates to $1,311,744 per year in revenue. Given the niche, I’ll assume a net margin of 25% (somewhere between 25-30% would be reasonable). That gives you an annual profit of $327,936
2 Actionable Takeaways
Here are actionable takeaways that you can apply to your business today:
- Evaluate your main images against your competition today. Are there small tweaks you can make to increase CTR? Use Manage Your Experiments to test the difference
- Look at your competitors and see if they are running any Facebook Ads (https://facebook.com/ads/library). Use this style with your Sponsored Brands videos on Amazon.
